I get the impression that this post is based solely on watching the first movie in the series. I HATE that movie... but not for any of the reasons you mentioned. It leaves out so much from the book that it felt like a mindless, shallow "cash-grab" to me. In fact, I hated it so much that I refused to see any of the following movies for many years.
The books are so much deeper and better than that movie. It does not sound like these books would be your "cup of tea" but I feel you would need to read them in order to truly understand the cultural phenomenon that they became.
After reading all of the books, I finally allowed myself to watch the movies. they got progressively deeper and better but I still prefer the books.
If the only benefit of the books was that they lead to a generation of children (including my own) falling in love with reading, they would be worth their weight in gold. But honestly they did much more.
These are kids books. They require quite a bit of suspension of disbelief. If you can do that, they are filled with pretty important and inspiring messages.
I actually agree with your initial premise. Kids should not watch the first Harry Potter movie... until they have read the books.
However, I see great value in kids reading the books... but that is up to individual parents to decide.
The thing is that kids usually have problems with differentiating between their belief and reality.
Thank you for your comment. Check up my responses to other comments here. They could answer to your points. Don't want to retype same things. Besides it takes ages on android :-D
Now there is something we agree on 100%. It sucks responding to comments on a mobile device!!! ;)
meep
Don't you ever say anything els... oh never mind. ;)
meep